Right-Wing Protesters Denounce Obama In D.C.

Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Washington at the weekend in the largest manifestation yet of the angry anti-Obama sentiment being whipped up among rightwing Republicans.

Bearing flags saying “Don’t tread on me!”, “Enough, enough” and “I’m not your ATM”, they descended on the capital on Saturday from all corners of the country to denounce what they believe is the administration’s march towards socialism.

The protesters vented their spleens over a wide range of targets, from conservative staples such as perceived high taxes and big government, through President Barack Obama‘s plans to reform health care, to more extreme portrayals of Obama as a terrorist or a Hitler figure. The depiction of the administration as socialist or communist was a unifying theme.

Marchers took three hours to walk from the White House to Capitol Hill, and the crowd that assembled on the west lawn of the Capitol spilled out on to the National Mall.

Democratic commentators were quick to dismiss the protest as the ranting of an intensely motivated but electorally marginal rightwing alliance. The Obama administration is intent on pressing ahead with selling health reform to the US public, despite all the rightwing noise.